Do you remember my Las Vegas CES 98 report where I asserted that
the John Wolfe/Audio Classic Reproduction T-1 Speaker was Best at
Show and that this speaker was made with off the shelf...anyone
can buy...TAD components?

TAD, Technical Audio Devices, a division of Pioneer, makes world class
driver components that are used mostly in recording studios. These are
also the favorite drivers of Bruce Edgar of horn fame.

These are also the rave fave drivers of Japanese audiomaniacs and they
are common in the Japanese homes for a good reason....you
cant create a bad sound with them. In Japan, you walk down to your
local audio salon and pick up a set of these drivers, then you walk next
store to the speaker box maker and pick up a set of cabinets
and you take the stuff home and in a couple of hours you have state
of the art speakers that you will own the rest of your life. Japanese
audio magazines are filled with ads for speaker enclosures and horns for
these drivers and in their DIY magazines there are articles about innovative
cabinet designs for these drivers.

These drivers are not cheap, but there is nothing you can buy in any
store-bought American speaker that comes close to the quality of these
drivers. Can you imagine any...even the most expensive American loudspeaker...that
uses a $600 woofer? You buy TAD once, and you take them into the next
lifetime.

Now we get to the fun part...when you go to the TAD web site you will
notice these are all super high efficiency drivers with the woofers ranging
from 94 to 100 db efficient and the midrange compression drivers all around
100 db efficient which means with these drivers you are in Triode Heaven.
Did you notice the A word...the Alnico word...thats right
there are lots of Alnico drivers....why?...because they are superior to
ferrite/ceramic types, and Japanese audiomaniacs demand them.

You will also note that TAD sells crossover networks but I suggest you
build your own which is very easy. How difficult is to get these drivers?
Just skateboard down to your local pro-audio shop and pull out your plastic.

So the good news is that these super high quality high efficiency/high
impedance alnico drivers are available in your neighborhood...the bad
news is that they are expensive and that you have to hire a carpenter
to build a box...and the goods news, in closing, is that you can, with
a little effort, save thousands of dollars and create a loudspeaker that
is vastly superior to anything available in your local audio salon.....add
enjoy those magnificent 3 watt directly heated triode amps blasting the
wallpaper off your walls.